Sundance ’17: Raw

Forget Goat (easily done) and Burning Sands. This is the Sundance hazing film that has real bite. As a first-year student at veterinary college, Justine will be drenched in animal blood and forced to eat uncooked liver as part of the initiation rituals. It all horribly disgusts the vegetarian, until her tastes start to radically change in Julia Ducournau’s Raw, which screened at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival.

When driving Justine to her prestigious but way-the-heck-and-gone vet school, her parents throw a fit when a bit of sausage strays into her mashed potatoes. However, her upper classmen sister Alexia is not so supportive during hazing week (every week is hazing week at this school). She tells her flat-out to eat the darned liver, popping one down the hatch herself, leaving Justine disappointed by her sister’s apparent departure from family custom and hurt by the betrayal.

Soon Justine’s health suffers, most likely the result of bacteria from the raw meat (you think, maybe?). Her relationship with her sister also strains to its breaking point, due Justine’s resentment of Alexia’s bullying and her sister’s jealousy of her curve-shattering academic brilliance. In fact, things will get very bad between them, in ways that ought to irreversibly sever their relationship. Simultaneously, Justine also starts to crave meat—more specifically raw human flesh.

Arguably, Ducournou’s conflation of sexual empowerment with cannibalism is rather awkwardly on-the-nose. However, the rich emotional complexity of the bitter sibling rivalry stands Raw in a category all its own. These sisters are something else entirely. Docournou constantly calls and raises their excesses in ways that make the jaw slacken.

In fact, Garance Marillier and Ella Rumpf are both pretty incredible as Justine and Alexia, arguably giving two of the best performances you will ever see from thesps drenched in gore. As Justine (a name that deliberately carries associations with the notorious de Sade), the former is a nest of twitchy sexual insecurities, while the latter is an edgy, brooding bundle of accrued sleights and resentments, somewhat resembling a younger, Frencher, gother Rachel Weisz. Initially, it seems Laurent Lucas (probably best known for Fabrice Du Welz’s Alléluia and Calvaire) is ridiculously under-employed as Justine’s father, but he will have his moment.

If this is how they train vets in France than jet-setters should probably keep all their pets here in America. Regardless, Raw is such an intense film, precisely because it is so personal and intimate. Frankly, it really is the sort of family cannibalism drama We Are What We Are was supposedly cracked up to be. Highly recommended for cult cinema connoisseurs, Raw opens in select theaters March 10^th, after screening at this year’s Sundance.

It's Not Yet Dark (201) Sundance 2017

I discovered the work of Simon Fitzmaurice when I saw his film MY NAME IS EMILY at the Toronto Film Festival . This unsentimental love letter to being alive was one of the best films I saw in 2015. What was extraordinary about the film is that Fitzmaurice directed the film from his wheelchair while on set via his computer. That may not sound like much but Fitzmaurice has full on Motor Neuron Disease (aka ALS) and can not move anything except his eyes.

After my review ran I got an email from one of Fitzmaurice's cousins. The family had seen the review and were happy that I liked the film. It was suggested that I track down It's Not Yet Dark Fitzmaurice‘s autobiography (it gives this film it’s title) because it told the whole story of the disease. I purchased a copy but I never read it.

And now it has been turned into a moving documentary.IT'S NOT YET DARK the film will make you feel good.

Filled with video and pictures of a man living life to its fullest regardless of his state. It is a beautiful portrait of a man who refuses to go into that good night. A poet and writer who turned his love of film into his life’s work Simon Fitzmaurice is truly driven my the things he loves. While film is his vocation, he will not leave his wife or his family without a battle and  he is determined to win. When the doctors in Ireland asked why he wouldn't turn off the machines keeping him alive he gave Wesley's answer in THE PRINCESS BRIDE when miracle Max asked why he wanted to live - True Love. Fitzmaurice loves his family above all else and will stay with them as long as he can.

Simply put, this film, like the feature MY NAME IS EMILY, is a glorious fuck you to death. Just because the doctors say you should go Fitzmaurice will assure you that you don't. This is a wide eyed look at a man with hope despite the odds and what he has been told. If you're feeling down this film might help you find away back to the light because it says you too can fight.

The steel bar backbone of the film is the narration by Colin Ferrell. Taken, from the Fitzmaurice's own words it makes clear that despite a failing body he has a great mind. The turns of phrase and explanations cut right to the point and we can instantly feel what he is feeling. This is further borne out by the words spilling out of his computer. He is a man soaring despite being tethered to an anchor. Now that I'm done with the film and this review I'm going to dig out my copy of the book and read all of Fitzmaurice's words.

I was moved. This is a film that is frequently as good as a cinematic biography can be. Its a film that transcends the genre to become a work of art in its own right.

If I had any complaint it would be that some of the talking head interviews come off as too conventional. While they are absolutely necessary to the film, filling in details we can’t get any other way, the way they are filmed, static images, stand out from the rest of the film which is a flurry of activity. On the other hand I have no idea how you might have fill them any other way.

Bumps or no-I love this film- this is a joyous celebration of a single life, the family around it and of every living person on the face of the earth. I can't wait for this to get a release and circle the fests so I can get people to see it.

An absolute must see.

Sundance ’17: XX

Horror movies introduced us Mrs. Voorhees before we ever met her son Jason, as well as Annie Wilkes in Misery, Asami Yamazaki in Audition, and a host of Japanese lady ghosts, with long flowing hair. Horror fans understand better than anyone everyone is a potential serial killer, regardless how vulnerable they might look. That doesn’t leave any room for sexism, but four (or five counting the interstitial animation) women filmmakers will drive the point home in the anthology film XX, which screened at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival.

Jovanka Vuckovic’s The Box is based on a Jack Ketchum story rather than the previously adapted Richard Matheson tale, but the vibes are not completely dissimilar. Thus far, Susan Jacobs has balanced motherhood and her professional work quite well, but while on the train back to the suburbs, she fails to adequately discourage her bratty son Danny from looking in a stranger’s gift box. At the time, he has little reaction, but he permanently loses his appetite thereafter. In addition, he seems to be able to pass along the mysterious malady to other family members.

The Box has a terrific look and feel that sort of brings to mind Todd Haynes’ Carol, but it is by far the better film. Vuckovic manages to give it a fable-like vibe, yet also keep it concretely grounded in its sheltered Westchester (or wherever) world. Natalie Brown is also quite compelling as the distressed mother.

In contrast, Annie Clark’s The Birthday Party is played mostly for gory laughs, but they mostly land thanks to a game cast. About an hour before her daughter’s meticulously planned birthday party, Mary is alarmed to find her husband has dropped dead, so she goes to extreme lengths to cover-up his death. It is a blackly comic one-darned-thing-after-another yarn, but it features Sheila (A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night) Vand as Carla, the intimidating and ridiculously glamorous housekeeper as a happy bonus.

Roxanne Benjamin’s Don’t Fall is easily the most conventional of the assembled films in XX. By day, a group of campers off-handedly discover some rock carvings, but by night they realize they are not alone out there. Benjamin crafts some atmospheric moments, but we have been here many times before.

Happily, XX ends on a high note with Karyn Kusama’s Her Only Living Son. Cora’s son is about to turn eighteen and he is starting to exhibit behavioral problems—yet none of the teachers or administrators at his school seem to alarmed by his sudden aggression. Of course, we have our suspicions why that will be quickly confirmed. Essentially, Kusama’s contribution is a clever riff on Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby, suggesting what might have happened if the pregnant mother had ditched Ralph Bellamy for a real doctor sooner. Kusama steadily cranks up the tension quite insidiously, while Christina Kirk is really quite terrific as the ferociously protective Cora.

Her Only Living Son is probably the best full and discrete installment in XX, but the most distinctive parts are probably Sofia Carrillo’s macabre stop-motion animated wrap-around segments, featuring creepy porcelain dolls and all sorts of haunted house trappings. It is a fairly solid collection, but the first two constituent films go more for feelings of alienation and betrayal or gross-out laughs rather than outright scares. Regardless, the work from Kusama, Vuckovic and Carrillo, along with the presence of Vand and Kirk easily carries the full film. Recommended for fans of horror and the darkly ironic, XX screened at this year’s Sundance, in advance of its February 17^th theatrical opening in select cities, including the Nitehawk Cinema in Brooklyn.

Machines (2016) Sundance 2017 MOMA Doc Fortnight 2017

Observational documentaries can either be wonderfully immersive experiences or down right snooze fests. Frequently directors don't know how long to hold their shots or over estimate the interest of their audience and stretch things out past the point of breaking. There is a fine line to be walked and it's the rare director who finds and exploits the sweet spot. Thankfully director Rahul Jain knows where that spot is and his MACHINES is a truly hypnotic experiences.

Beginning with moving camera on the prowl through the various rooms of a textile factory in India MACHINES brings us into the heart of a plant where men and machines and men who become machines work long 12 hour shifts, in all kinds of conditions, in order to turn out beautiful colorful cloth. We watch as dyes are mixed, cloth is created and the men make sure it all runs smoothly. The sounds are that of the machines constantly running and clanking along in a steady rhythm.

I fell into this film and stayed with it to the end. Usually I find the spell breaks somewhere along the way, but this film's brief 1 minute run time is the perfect length. Nothing goes on longer than it should. It also helps that Jain keeps things mtheoving. More often than not the camera seems to be on the prowl moving, shifting, observing, trying to get a better vantage point. Even when the shot is more or less static there is motion as if we were in the room and were shifting out weight from one foot to another.

This is one of the best observational docs that I've run across recently. This is a film that really puts you in the mill with the men Thanks to perfect framing by cinematographer Rodrigo Trejo Villanueva who rightly won an award at the recently ended Sundance Film Festival. Trust me on this his camera work makes this film a must see when the film plays February 16th at MOMA's Doc Fortnight. Between Villanueva's camera work and Jain's picking of subjects this is a team that is going to do great things. Trust me there is a sympatico between them that is magical. They truly put you in the factory if they pumped in smells during the screening you'd swear you were in India.

This film is a must see on the big screen. Its highly recommended.

The film has just finished it's run at SUndance. It will next be seen as the opening night film at the Museum of Modern Art in New York's opening film for their annual Doc Fortnight. (For more information and tickets- on Sale February 2nd- go here.)

Sundance ’17: Kaputt/Broken—The Women’s Prison at Hoheneck (short)

Exploiting vulnerable labor for profit is everything socialist propaganda crusades against. Yet, the exploitation of the inmates at Hoheneck Prison helped keep the financially ailing East Germany from completely imploding. Of course, in reality there was nothing democratic or republican about the GDR/DDR. Survivors of the abuse and exploitation tell their tales in Alexander Lahl & Volker Schlecht’s black-and-white animated short documentary, Kaputt/Broken—The Women’s Prison at Hoheneck, which screened at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival.

The Brutalist architecture of Hoheneck screamed East German oppression—and the insides lived up to the outside. It was perennially overcrowded, because at least politically-motivated arrests in the DDR consistently ran above quota. Daily life was a mixture of routine humiliation and grinding toil to make their production quotas in the prison’s bed linen sweat shop.

Kaputt/Broken is a powerful seven-minute indictment of the socialist system, executed in an evocatively severe style that could be described as a cross between Honoré Daumier and a Stasi dossier. Yet, perhaps what is most striking is the grimly poetic language taken directly from original oral histories of Hoheneck survivors.

Conditions at Hoheneck were simply barbaric, but the bitterest pill for the former political prisoners to swallow is the fact the West helped underwrite their torture by buying Hoheneck’s garments. The Wall has fallen, but the victims of the socialist East clearly remain traumatized. That lingering pain comes through clearly in the haunting short. Schlecht’s animation is almost perversely elegant, while the minimalist sound design heightens the eerily tragic vibe. Very highly recommended, Kaputt/Broken won the Short Film Jury Award for Animation at this year’s Sundance. It next screens February 17^th and 19^th during MoMA’s Doc Fortnight.

Workers Cup (2017) Sundance 2017

Portrait of life in the Qatar workers camps where men from all over the world live while they build the stadiums for the 2022 World Cup. As they build 24 companies field teams and set up a tournament for the workers.

Odd ball mix of middling sports doc about the teams and the games mixes with a semi social justice story that only touches on the horrible existence of the workers that results in a film that just sort of lays there.

If you aren't aware of the terrible situation of the workers in Qatar this film will give you only a hint of the bullshit that is going on. Effectively the companies are recruiting people from all over the globe- many being asked to pay fees to get the job- only to find slave like conditions when they get there. Work days are every day. Their papers are stolen, they can not leave the camps except to go to work and contact is limited with the outside. Many camps are over crowded. The men are effectively slaves with the inability to do anything even go home controlled by the companies and the Qatar officials. Little of that is really in the film which mentions it but focuses more on the men and the football matches. (if you want to know start with the HBO REAL SPORTS stories)

While the lack of information on what the workers actual conditions might have worked had the film been more adept at showing the football teams, their prep and the matches in anything remotely an exciting way. The sports footage in this film might actually be the least exciting I've ever seen. Its not bad, there simply isn't any emotion in it.

About half way into the film I suddenly started to wonder how Hubert Vigilla would describe the film if we were talking to each other about it. Hubert has this killer way of reducing everything down to laser simplicity. There is a genius to it. I keep hearing him say "There were these workers who were abused and then some football happened." Which kind of sums up my feeling.

I suspect that the reason the film is so odd is that the director had to promise certain limitations in order to get access and then had to cut around it.

Personally I found this film to be disappointing and not really worth the time- which kills me because the guys in the film deserve to be seen and heard.

Sundance ’17: Kaiju Bunraku (short)

How can Japan be some stoic in the face of rampaging kaiju monsters? They are just used to it. If you have seen the Daimajin movies, you know this sort of thing has gone on for centuries. You need not explain the kaiju phenomenon to this particular weary married couple of traditional bunraku marionettes. They will weather yet another attack in Lucas Leyva & Jillian Mayer’s short film Kaiju Bunraku, which screened during the 2017 Sundance Film Festival.

As per custom dating back to the early 1800s, the puppeteers bringing life to K-B’s characters appear all in black, with their faces hooded. They are performing on an actual stage, apparently before a live audience, but the sets and costumes are so richly crafted, viewers will immediately be transported into the bickering couple’s world. The man and woman live in an unspecified time, presumably pre-Twentieth Century, except they understand only too well the poisonous effects of the radiation released on their environment from the constant kaiju assaults. Like Sisyphus, they ordinarily just pick up the pieces of their lives and carry-on until the next kaiju barges through. However, the man might finally reach his breaking point this time around.

Although fans will say it is not canonical, K-B arguably represents the first Mothra film to make it to Sundance. Regardless, the film is wickedly cool in conception and execution, staying true to the spirit of both bunraku theater and Japanese kaiju cinema. The artistry of the Bunraku Bay Puppet Theater is wonderfully refined and hugely entertaining. They really bring out the emotional poignancy of the two characters.

K-B will absolutely leave viewers wanting more bunraku and more kaiju, but the film itself feels entirely self-contained. It is a terrific short that should be a cinch to get programmed at the genre festivals coming later in the year, much like Do No Harm. Enthusiastically recommended for those who appreciate Japanese culture and cult cinema, Kaiju Bunraku premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

Summer's Puke is Winter's Delight (2016) Sundance 2017

Sawako Kabuki's SUMMER'S PUKE IS WINTER'S DELIGHT is a three minute endurance test. An animated music video of a sort, the film has fractured techno beat over stuttering dialog and the sound of a woman throwing up. I suspect that some are going to feel the need to heave themselves.

The images are drippy melty sort of images where a woman eats to much then throws up and then runs off to have melty sex with a man who force feeds her and it all repeats. The effect is disturbing and disorienting and despite running only three minutes it feels much longer

I honestly have no idea. I suspect the film exists to get Kabuki noticed but beyond that this is the sort of thing one would pass around to friends just to see their reaction as opposed to wanting to sit down for a good time. Misogynistic, the film maybe trying to say something about the things women do for their lovers but it's a film that bludgeons it's characters and the audience to the point of not caring- or at least wanting to hide under the seat in front of them.

Artistically the lines and images are interesting and well rendered but divorced of the disturbing soundtrack there isn't anything we haven't seen before.

If you run across this you may want to test yourself, but mostly I'd suggest taking a pass- or running to the rest room if you run across this at a festival.

Cipka (2017) Sundance 2017

Renata Gąsiorowska's CIPKA (Pussy) is a masterpiece. A beautifully animated short that just works to hell with the fact that I'm a guy this is just a great film.

The plot of the film has a girl alone decide to pleasure herself but things go sideways. I can't really explain more than that because of the nature of what happens will be lessened.

The visuals of the film are stunning. They are simple. see above, but at the same time they manage to covey so much. What I love is how as the film goes on things become more complicated, the visuals more detiled. With the bits toward the end I was smiling with wonderful sense of glee because the film just pulls it all together into a glorious use of color that replaces the white world.

My only question with the whole film is why does it feel it needs a guy with a telescope in a couple of scenes. Yes I know it allows for a funny  gag but it's out of place.

I can't say enough good about it except that it's very possible Renata Gąsiorowska maybe one of new favorite directors. If this one plays near you see it.

(Additionally I would love to hear what any women who see it think of it)

RUMBLE-INDIANS WHO ROCKED THE WORLD (2017) Sundance 2017

Rough, raw imperfect and so full of life it changes the way you see the world RUMBLE-INDIANS WHO ROCKED THE WORLD is freaking awesome. Its one of those great documentaries that grabs you by the gonads and drags you along. It will force you to rethink how you see music history.

The film is nominally a look at the place of native Americans in the history of rock and roll but in reality this is a history of all popular music. Beginning with Link Wray, who's RUMBLE gives the film its title, the film then spreads out to show how Native Americans changed all of popular music. And I do mean all since we get a Frank Sinatra anecdote and and Tony Bennett on camera talking about some of the people being discussed made them who they are. Of course the film highlights a large number of people with Native American blood in them including Mildred Bailey, Charlie Patton, side men Jesse Ed Davis, Randy Castillo and of course the big names of Jimi Hendrix and Robbie Robertson. And it ties it all up with a glorious selection of talking heads including Steven Van Zandt, TAj Mahal, Buddy Guy, Robertson, Martin Scorsese, Tony Bennett...and the list goes on.

If that wasn't enough the film is full of video and audio recordings of many of the legends discussed. this is important for two reasons, first they are great pieces of music, but more importantly they reveal how the once shunned upon rhythms and vocal patterns were repurposed as rock and other standards. It's something that is plain as day once it's pointed out- but odds are you never thought to listen to it.

Wow and then some.

I have no rational thoughts concerning this film. RUMBLE is the the equivalent to walking into a juke joint and seeing someone unexpected blow you away. I have no words to describe what a major rewrite of how I view music this just caused. I have only emotions and lots of "Oh Wows". which I kept mumbling to the annoyance of the people around me.

If I must say something bad about the film it's that there is simply too much to the story and while what is here is top of the line, this could have been a bit longer simply because it's clear we're only getting part of the story.

No idea if it's one of the best films of the year but it's damn certain it's one of my favorites.

The film is done with Sundance but I full expect it to continue on the festival circuit before hitting PBS (They were one of the producers). Do yourself a favor see it in a theater where the big picture and big sound will over whelm and the colorful language won't be censored.

One of 2017's must see films

Sundance ’17: Do No Harm (short)

The Hippocratic Oath is about to get a serious workout and the surgical scalpel will become a lethal martial arts weapon. She is truly a doctor who fights for her patients, but there is a special reason for her ferocity in Roseanne Liang’s Do No Harm, by far the best film in the Midnight Shorts Program at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival.

In a private Hongjing hospital, the unnamed doctor is quietly stitching up a gangster, until a rival gang rudely interrupts. They nearly massacre the entire surgical team, but the doctor is tough to kill. Her patient is probably just a bad a thug or maybe even worse, but she will protect him no matter what, racking up a gosh darned impressive body count of her own.

Harm is a super-charged, ultra-gritty action movie in the tradition of hospital shoot ‘em ups like John Woo’s Hard Boiled and Johnnie To’s Three, but Liang averages considerably more mayhem per minute. As the doctor, Marsha Yuen instantly establishes herself as an action figure, but also has sufficient gravitas to be a trusted medical profession. If you were going under the knife, you would want her to be the one in charge of the operation.

The large supporting ensemble of gangsters also have impressive stage-fighting skills and project the appropriate malevolence. Young Emily Tam is also quite effective in her third act appearance. In fact, she and Yuen are so good, the ambiguous ending is rather frustrating. Hopefully, Liang will fix that in the feature version—because this is exactly the sort of short that seems ripe for a longer treatment. Regardless, the butt-kicking is highly entertaining and the credible performances duly reflect the dire stakes. Enthusiastically recommended, Do No Harm should be a cinch to turn up at genre festivals like Fantasia after rocking the Midnight Shorts at this year’s Sundance.

My Father's Tools (2017) Sundance 2017

My Fathers's Tools - Trailer from Wapikoni mobile on Vimeo.

Heather Condo's short MY FATHER'S TOOLS is a portrait of Condo's husband Stephen Jerome who makes baskets in the traditional way, more or less, of the Mi’gmaq aboriginal community of Gesgapegiag in the province of Quebec, Canada. Its a really cool little film that kind of flips on you. What I mean by that is that as it starts you're wondering where it's going ut once Jerome gets back to the shop and actually making the basket you kind of fall into it.

Definitely worth the time to see it.

The film was produced by Wapikoni mobile, a portable studio fully equipped with cutting-edge technology that “travels to” First Nations communities. A To see other aboriginal films produced by Wapikoni mobile, please visit the official website www.wapikoni.ca

Sundance ’17: Their Finest

Michael Powell and Charles Frend were great filmmakers, but they couldn’t win the war on their own. Catrin Cole will also do her part as a “Rosie the Riveter” of screenwriting. Initially, she is recruited to boost a prospective propaganda film’s appeal to women, but her talent will lead to more substantial contributions in Lone Scherfig’s Their Finest, which screens during the 2017 Sundance Film Festival.

Cole thought she was applying for another clerical job, but it was in fact a position writing “slop,” Bechdel Test-passing dialogue, for wartime propaganda films. Evidently, her bosses were impressed by her uncredited newspaper work. Of course, she will remain uncredited on the film and she will necessarily be paid less than her male counterparts. Yet, it is still quite an opportunity.

At first, veteran screenwriter and committed cynic Tom Buckley is less than thrilled to share an office and duties with Cole, but he recognizes her talent relatively quickly. Their mutual attraction will develop more slowly, but in an assuredly steady fashion. Cole will also win over hammy past-his-prime leading man, Ambrose Hilliard, as she helps morph his comically bumbling character into a figure of tragic heroism, while still serving the best interests of the film.

Frankly, the film-within-the-film Cole and company labor to complete actually looks like it would be pretty good, or at least easily watchable if Scherfig and her ensemble made it for reals, which is definitely saying something. Conceived as a chronicle of the Dunkirk evacuation designed to boost British moral and sway still neutral American public opinion, it definitely seems to be in keeping with the tone and aesthetics of the classic Powell, Frend, and Cavalcanti films of the era.

The primary film itself is also quite stirring and genuinely touching. Gemma Arterton takes a completely charming and engaging star-turn as Cole that could potentially raise her profile in America to the level she has reached in the UK. She is like a more vulnerable Rosalind Russell, which we do not say lightly. The romantic chemistry she forges with Sam Claflin’s Buckley always feels like it develops organically. Likewise, her scenes with Hilliard (played with wry zest by Bill Nighy, the acting guy) have the wit and charm of vintage Ealing comedy. Yet, perhaps the biggest laughs come from Jake Lacy, portraying an American RAF volunteer, cast in Cole’s film for his jawline and real life heroic exploits rather than his painfully awkward line-readings.

To its credit, Their Finest is not the predictable feel good film you might expect. Overall, it will do wonders for viewers’ morale too, but Scherfog and screenwriter Gaby Chiappe stay true to the desperate realities of London during the Blitz. Regardless, it is a pleasure to watch the accomplished ensemble do what they do best, including Jeremy Irons and Richard E. Grant making the most of cameo appearances. It would make a fitting pairing with The King’s Speech with its rousing portrait of the British home front, but with a pinch of feminist commentary unobtrusively sprinkled into the mix. Enthusiastically recommended, Their Finest screens again today (1/28), as part of this year’s Sundance.

Sundance ’17: Bad Day for the Cut

It is sort of like a Northern Irish western, but instead of looking for the man who shot his pa, Donal is out to kill the chick who had his mum’s head bashed in. It turns out it is part of an IRA feud dating back to the 1970s. Who knew they could hold a grudge so long in those parts? Yet, they most decidedly do in Chris Baugh’s Bad Day for the Cut, which screens during the 2017 Sundance Film Festival.

Donal is resigned to be a quiet middle-aged farmer, who lives with his mother and fixes cars on the side, until dear old Florence is murdered in an apparent burglary gone wrong. Shortly thereafter, two thugs try to dispatch Donal in a phony suicide, but the crusty cat is harder to kill than they anticipated. It also helps that Bartosz’s heart really wasn’t in it. His was forced to assist in the hit job by human traffickers holding his sister Kaja. Forging an alliance of convenience that will blossom into trust, Donal and Bartosz follow the chain of gangsters up the ladder to Frankie Pierce, who built a trafficking and prostitution empire out of her father’s old IRA terrorism network.

Baugh and co-screenwriter Brendan Mullin repeatedly emphasize the tragic nature of the unending cycle of revenge-taking. Yet, there sure seems to be a lot of people in Bad Day who need killing. So maybe the real message is you better just finish the job completely, because that last bad guy left alive is ever so likely to come back to haunt you later.

Regardless, Nigel O’Neill is all kinds of awesome as salt-of-the-earth Donal. He broods like a monster, yet still remains believably unassuming. He is the kind of dude who will convince you Nixon was right about riling up the quiet majority. It is definitely a bad idea in Donal’s case. This is not a buddy movie by any stretch, but the co-conspirator chemistry he forges with Józef Pawlowski’s Bartosz evolves in credibly engaging ways.

Bad Day is also blessed with several great villains starting with Susan Lynch, who plays Pierce with wonderfully foul-mouthed Cruella De Vil flamboyance. She is ably assisted by Stuart Graham as her natty right-hand man. Plus, David Pearse (Grabbers, Zonad) gets to do his weaselly thing as Gavigan, Pierce’s first lieutenant unlucky enough to fall into Donal’s hands.

According to Bad Day, revenge is like money and good looks—you can never have too much. Nevertheless, Baugh certainly isn’t mucking around with this hard-nosed morality play. He stages some brutally intense action scenes, often exploiting whatever common household items might be at hand. It is a lean, mean killing machine, but it definitely has a moral center. Highly recommended for fans of payback movies, Bad Day for the Cut screens again today (1/28) in Salt Lake, as part of this year’s Sundance.

Sundance ’17: Rememory

Without our memories, we wouldn’t have our guilt, jealousy, and resentments—all the stuff that makes us human. It would seem the messy combination above also contributed to the death of noted memory specialist Dr. Gordon Dunn. Unfortunately, Dunn’s new game-changing invention is also missing, prompting the mysterious Sam Bloom to conduct his own investigation in Mark Palansky’s Rememory, which screens during the 2017 Sundance Film Festival.

It is not clear whether Bloom really was a friend of Dunn’s or if he simply hoping the Macguffin device would help him process his emotional issues. Clearly, Bloom blames himself for the death of his rock-star brother, because he was behind the wheel at the time of the fatal accident. This looks like a perfect case for Dunn’s treatment. His invention records and plays back memory with flawless accuracy, stripping away the distortions we layer on over the years. According to Dunn, viewing painful memories in this fashion is cathartic, but at least one disgruntled patient vehemently begs to differ. As a further complication, Dunn had begun tweaking his device after documenting a number of unfortunate side effects.

Of course, the agitated Todd is seen furtively leaving Dunn’s office on the fateful night in question. So is his spurned lover Wendy, who is also rather disappointed Dunn used a number of her emotionally charged memories in his Steve Jobs-style product launch, without prior permission. Tracking down the memory VCR would certainly help Bloom crack the case, but it might not necessarily cure what ails him.

It is hard to explain why, but Rememory does not feel like a Sundance film. It is built around an intriguing premise, but Palansky never delves too deeply into issues of memory and identity. Nevertheless, the noir style is quite appealing. Game of Thrones fans will also be happy to hear Peter Dinklage is terrific as Bloom. It is a moody but understated turn that proves he can carry a film. His scenes with Julia Ormond playing Dunn’s slightly estranged widow are especially rich and laden with complicated chemistry. The late Anton Yelchin (who had two films at Sundance this year) is also twitchy and jangly, like a raw nerve ending, as poor desperate Todd. Plus, Martin Donovan is perfectly cast as the smooth-talking Dunn, but unfortunately there is no opportunity for a proper scene with him and Dinklage together.

Rememory is a reasonably entertaining film, but it is nowhere near as clever as it thinks it is. Regardless, it is a pleasure to watch pros like Dinklage and Ormond do their thing. Sadly, it also takes on additional irony as one of Yelchin’s final films that happens to be all about memory and grief. Recommended overall for fans of social-psychological science fiction, Rememory screens again tomorrow (1/28) at Sundance Mountain Resort and Sunday (1/29) in Salt Lake, as part of this year’s Sundance.

Sundance ’17: Berlin Syndrome

If Australian Melanie Joosten’s debut novel had been originally published by a New York house instead, it would probably be titled The Girl in Berlin. The play on “Stockholm Syndrome” might be a bit too forced, but it is still more distinctive than yet another attempt to evoke Gillian Flynn and Paula Harkins. One thing is completely certain, an Australian tourist lands in deadly serious trouble in Cate Shortland’s Berlin Syndrome, which screens during the 2017 Sundance Film Festival.

Clare has a thing for vintage GDR (DDR) architecture and the paintings of Gustav Klimt. Maybe that is why she feels such an instant attraction to Andi, a native East German school teacher. They have similar tastes in art and literature, but he seems rather bitter about both Re-Unification and the grim old days of Communism. Unfortunately, his attitudes towards women are also complicated, in the worst possible way.

After meeting in a promising Before Sunrise manner, Clare wakes to find her one-night stand just won’t end. She is locked into Andi’s refurbished and specially reinforced flat—the only still hospitable unit in an abandoned GDR-era housing complex. Initially, Clare rebels, but that just gets her trussed up. Quickly, she decides making nice is a shrewder course of action, but she remains watchful for any possible escape opportunity. Most ominously, she picks up clues suggesting she is not the first woman Andi has held captive.

Shaun Grant’s adaptation of Joosten’s novel makes the title sound misleading. While there are times Clare puts on a good show for Andi, viewers will never wonder if she is starting to feel a Stockholm Syndrome attachment for him. Still, the cat-and-mouse games are definitely tense stuff. However, Andi’s impossibly good luck is truly cosmically unjust. He just seems to get every break.

Regardless, the glammed down Teresa Palmer gives a harrowingly intense performance as Clare. She makes the audience feel every ounce of her characters suffering. Max Riemelt (who sort of looks like Jason Ritter, who looks a lot like Jason Giambi) is also appropriately clammy and tightly wound, which makes it even harder to believe she could fall for him.

Shortland (the Australian specialist in German language films, probably best known for Lore) shows sure-footed instincts, conveying a visceral sense of Clare’s claustrophobia, but periodically opening the film up to show more of Andi’s awkward interactions with the world. Yet, in all honesty, many of us regular genre [re]viewers are getting a little tired of creepy abduction thrillers. Shortland and cinematographer Germain McMicking give it plenty of style, but it is debatable whether it really fills a void in the world. Recommended for those not fatigued with kidnapping-confinement dramas, Berlin Syndrome screens again today (1/27) in Park City, as part of this year’s Sundance.

Sundance ’17: Icarus

Unlike most subjects of documentaries premiering at Sundance this year, Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov was not available for post-screening Q&A’s. That is because he is in Witness Protection. Dr. Rodchenkov and the Federal government believed he was targeted by the Putin regime for assassination, perhaps much like several of his colleagues who suddenly died under mysterious circumstances. Before he went underground, Dr. Rodchenkov told his story to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and filmmaker Bryan Fogel. As a result, Fogel radically reshaped his proposed doping documentary into the riveting expose, Icarus, which screens during the 2017 Sundance Film Festival.

As a high-performing amateur cyclist, Fogel originally conceived the film as a guerilla chronicle of his undercover attempt to conduct his own doping regimen in the mode of Lance Armstrong. He was referred to Dr. Rodchenkov, because the director of the Russian Anti-Doping Center was considered sufficiently maverick to serve as Fogel’s advisor. As Fogel and Rodchenkov develop trust and rapport, rumors start to swirl regarding the legitimacy of Russia’s record medal haul at the Sochi games. Soon, Dr. Rodchenkov is directly implicated in those allegations. At that point, the doctor levels with Fogel: he oversaw a systemic doping campaign across all sports on the direct orders of Putin’s trusted deputies. He now fears for his own life.

In the scenes that follow, Icarus becomes the film CitizenFour was hyped to be, but can’t hold a candle to. After assisting Dr. Rodchenkov’s escape to America, Fogel engineers the release of his story to the press and WADA. Dr. Rodchenkov packed light, but he wisely brought along hard drives and cell phones loaded with proof.

Icarus is shocking in many ways, starting with how poorly Dr. Rodchenkov’s story was reported in the West. We mostly just accepted news of the Russian doping scandal as par for the course, following in the alleged tradition of the old school Communist Olympic training machines. However, the “smoking gun” conclusiveness of Dr. Rodchenkov’s evidence is stunning. Yet, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) chose to ignore it, presumably out of deference to Putin’s vodka and caviar. Aside from Putin and his FSB enforcers, the biggest villain in Icarus is undoubtedly Thomas Bach, the cravenly hypocritical IOC president.

Unlike Snowden (with whom Dr. Rodchenkov is directly compared with), viewers can feel the Russian whistleblower’s life is constantly in palpable danger during the doc’s second and third acts. Yet, there are even graver stakes involved. Fogel trenchantly points out Putin invaded Ukraine while riding a wave a nationalist popularity largely based on Russia’s Sochi triumphs.

Granted, there is a little too much of Fogel doing prep work for his original conception of the documentary, with him in the center. However, once the focus shifts to Dr. Rodchenkov, the film becomes taut, tense, suspenseful, and downright revelatory. This is truly gutsy documentary filmmaking. Icarus could very well be the motivation for the hacking of this year’s Sundance, if it was not the Chinese Communist Party in retribution for the screenings of the outstanding Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower. (Such scenarios might sound petty, but that is how dictatorships roll.) Very highly recommended, Icarus screens today (1/26) at the Sundance Mountain Resort and this Saturday (1/28) in Park City, as part of this year’s Sundance.

Sundance ’17: The Discovery

Science is still essentially agnostic. It makes no promises of harps and angels. However, Dr. Thomas Harber claims to have proof that after death, human consciousness leaves for a different plane of existence, the details of which remain unknown. As a result, tens of millions of people have committed suicide in anticipation of a fresh start. Yet, karma is still karma in Charlie McDowell’s The Discovery, which screens during the 2017 Sundance Film Festival.

Forty million plus have already taken their lives after “The Discovery,” but Harber is not inclined to take responsibility or show remorse. After all, they will go on somewhere, right? Perhaps he is also somewhat desensitized to suicide after his wife took her own life, pre-Discovery. Of course, that is why he is so driven to establish the specifics of the afterlife or whatever.

Harber’s semi-estranged son Will has come to his cult-like research institute hoping to convince the scientist to recant his claims. On the ferry to chilly, off-season Newport, Will encounters the mysterious Isla. Having sensed something dark hanging over her, Will manages to intervene during her suicide attempt. His father rather takes a liking to her too, so he agrees to take her on as a research subject/associate/cult member. Meanwhile, the junior Harber makes a discovery of his own that not necessarily contradicts his father’s, but radically alters its implications.

In terms of its metaphysical aesthetics, Discovery is not wildly incompatible with Matheson’s What Dreams May Come. It is safe to say karma plays a role, but it would be spoilery to spell it out. Still, it is probably safe to say McDowell and Justin Lader’s screenplay takes a radically unexpected turn, but it will not leave viewers dispirited. Quite the contrary.

Frankly, Jason Segel and Rooney Mara do some of their best work to date as Will and Isla. They are both convincingly smart and damaged, so it really feels like their relationship develops organically. Although it almost goes without saying, Robert “Sundance Kid” Redford’s Dr. Harber has all kinds of gravitas and presence. Yet, maybe the biggest surprise is Jesse Plemons’ humanistic, sneaks-up-on-you turn as Will Harber’s deceptively slacker-ish brother Toby.

The Discovery is an unusually smart film that features some provocative speculation but never skimps on character development. It is a worthy follow-up to McDowell’s crackerjack debut, The One I Love. Highly recommended, The Discovery screens again tomorrow (1/27) and Saturday (1/28) in Park City, as part of this year’s Sundance.

Sundance ’17: 78/52

Marli Renfro is a former Playboy Bunny and cover model who participated in truly groundbreaking cinematic history. She was Janet Leigh’s body in Psycho and there was quite a bit of doubling for her to do—78 set-ups and 52 cuts in total—and what cuts they were. The construction and legacy of the iconic/notorious shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho are lovingly analyzed in Alexandre O. Philippe’s 78/52, which screens during the 2017 Sundance Film Festival.

Sure, there are knowing homages (like the prologue to Scream), but no film has really come close to the shock of presumptive star Janet Leigh’s first act death in Hitchcock’s 1960 masterpiece. Of course, she was dispatched while taking a shower. If you haven’t seen Psycho several times already than shame on you, but keep in mind Philippe will “spoil” Norman Bates’ big secret almost immediately. This is a film for film lovers that presupposes intimate familiarity with Psycho, the Hitchcock canon in general, and the slasher and Giallo films it inspired.

Technically, Philippe shoehorns in some wider discussions of Psycho, such as the rainy driving sequence that in many ways foreshadows the shower scene in question. He also gives some solid “making of” background. Sadly, neither Hitch nor Leigh is still with us, but Renfro stills looks great and is happy to discuss her role in the film. Without question, her recollections will be the most newsworthy for fans. In addition, Philippe also incorporates commentary from a host of genre superstars, including Jamie Lee Curtis, Guillermo del Toro, Eli Roth, Karyn Kusama, Richard Stanley, Leigh Wannell, Mick Garris, and Elijah Wood.

Frankly, there are not a lot of groundbreaking revelations in 78/52, but Philippe’s deep dive provides a useful methodology for taking stock of the film’s artistry and cultural influence. Some diehards might complain that composer Bernard Herrmann’s instantly recognizable themes get somewhat short shrift. He also mercifully spares Gus Van Sant an awkward discussion of his ill-conceived 1998 shot-by-shot remake.

Without question, Psycho is one of the most important genre films ever made and the shower murder is clearly its defining scene (although some of us will argue the epilogue in which Simon Oakland explains it all is a close second). Philippe’s feature-length analysis easily sustains itself and the decision to render the film in black-and-white was rather inspired. Recommended with affection for fans of Hitchcock and nearly every subsequent psycho-stalker film, 78/52 screens again tomorrow (1/26) in Park City and Saturday (1/28) in Salt Lake, as part of this year’s Sundance.

Plastic China (2016) Sundance 2017

To say that Plastic China is an eye opener is an understatement. An look at a onetime farmer who now runs a plastic recycling plant and is just getting by the film is a glaring example of the gulf between the haves and have nots in modern day China.

Plastic waste from all over the world is shipped to China where it is shred and then recycled. The tedious work of sorting all the refuse is done by poorly paid workers. Kun and his family does most of the work with the help of Peng who get paid a couple of dollars a day - which he promptly drinks leaving nothing for his own family to live on.

While many films have shown the disparity between the classes in China none have done so graphically. Kun and his family are not particularly well off and we watch as the various bit of waste come through their hands hinting at a better life that they can only dream of. To be certain Kun is better off than Peng, but at the same time he isn’t making a killing. We watch as everyone in the film dreams of a better life. This is not the sort of thing I’m guessing the Chinese Communist Party are really going to want us to see since the platitudes we hear from Chairman Mao are seen woefully out of touch with the lives Kun and family are living.

Director Jiuliang Wang has made and film that forces us to sit up and take notice. Not really taking a stand as to what we are seeing the film appears to be more or less a record of the lives of everyone involved. Events simply play out without any sort of commentary. The result is a film that places us in the lives of people on the outer edge of people who are part of the largest market in the world. Yes we’ve seen the poverty in other films but rarely have we seen the vastness of the divide.

To be honest this is a film I need to see a second time. It’s not that there is too much to take in or anything like that rather it’s that my expectations were shaken up, the film didn’t go where I expected and I need to see it again so I can get past the “oh wow” factor I kind of felt. More simply put it kicked up stuff I’m still processing and I need a second time through to help order all my feelings. (the downside of festival screenings is you only get one time through.)

PLASTIC CHINA was literally the first film I saw in 2017 and it was a great way to start the film year.